Comprehensive, Diagnostic Testing
for
Dyslexia
Dyslexia Solutions Center offers dyslexia testing using a full battery of criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessments to determine and document a child’s strengths and weaknesses in reading, writing and spelling and to diagnose dyslexia, if indicated.
Results are presented in a detailed, analytical written report and discussed in a parent conference. Also included is attendance at an IEP meeting to present diagnosis and recommendations and to advocate on behalf of your child to obtain approrpiate aned effective services, specialized instruction and other learning supports.
Our reports have been used for special education eligibilty, IEP development, education planning and placement decisions and to support parents in due process hearings. We also provide Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs) on request.
Diagnostic testing ONLINE is also available!
What is Dyslexia?
“”Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.”
READ MOREWho is qualified to make a dyslexia diagnosis?
Per the International Dyslexia Association: “Assessment of dyslexia involves individual testing, most often provided by a team of qualified professionals who have had extensive clinical training in assessment as part of a graduate degree program. Professional clinicians who assess Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) and dyslexia may have M.A., M.S., M.Ed., Ed.D., or Ph.D. degrees in Education, Reading, Speech Language Pathology, School Psychology, Psychology, or Neuropsychology. Evaluation by a medical doctor is not required for assessment or identification of SLD or dyslexia.”
READ MORE Our diagnostic evaluation service consists of
3 components:
1
Diagnostic standards-based evaluations
The source of a child’s literacy challenges are determined via thorough and prescriptive testing, where specific tests chosen are based on a child’s age and grade level, developmental history, tests already administered by the school district – if any, informal assessments (such as grades, classroom observations), writing samples, Response to Intervention (RTI) results, and current 504 plans or IEPs.
2
Detailed, analytical written report of results
Written Documentation is provided which can be used to support education needs, including providing a foundation for special education eligibility and IEP development, to serve as an Independent Evaluation (IEE) for parents and the school district, to obtain accommodations and modifications in school and on standardized testing and to document the necessity for specialized reading and writing instruction.
Our detailed report summarizes and analyzes results, explaining their significance, providing a diagnosis, if applicable, and recommending interventions and instructional needs planning.
3
Intervention planning & advocacy
Evaluation results provide the foundation for intervention planning. Our evaluation service includes:
• Parent conference to discuss results, applications, and next steps.
• Attendance at a 504/ IEP meeting, or other relevant school meeting, to present results and advocate for your child.
Lynn Dalton, M.Ed., A/AOGPE
is uniquely qualified to evaluate your child for Dyslexia and make appropriate recommendations for individualized education planning and effective intervention programs. Her M.Ed. in Reading Science & Dyslexia meets the professional standards to administer and analyze criterion-and norm-referenced assessments, but it’s her experience and successes an educator, Orton Gilllingham tutor, and special education advocate that provides additional insight into the nuances of dyslexia. Lynn uses this knowledge base to provide a comprehsensive, integrated and synergistic approach to diagnostics. This approach is more effective in persuading schools to accept her diagnosis and her recommendations.
Summary of Qualifications:
M.Ed. in Reading Science and Dyslexia
from Mount Saint Joseph University, a Center for Effective Reading Instruction (CERI) certified Masters program, accredited by the International Dyslexia Association. Training included: diagnosis and remediation of reading and writing problems, Orton Gillingham-based methodologies, advanced phonics and linguistics, school psychology, statistical analysis, and standardized test administration and analysis. This degree program qualifies professionals for diagnosing dyslexia and provding reading and writing remediation.
Teacher (K-12) for over 20 years
teaching all grade levels and a variety of subjects, including multisensory, phonetic-based reading and writing instruction as an American Montessori Certified K-6th grade teacher and Orton Gillingham trained tutor. Based on these years of professional experience, and given a child’s standardized test results, Lynn is able to recommend and develop individualized intervention programs proven to be effective.
Special Education Advocate
representing parents through every stage of the special education process (see “Advocacy” for more information). Lynn’s advocacy career is invaluable here. Not only does she have the successful background to persuade schools to accept her testing results, but advocacy experience can provide improtant insight into which tests would be more perusasive to a school, such as WIAT-III versus KTEA -3. This knowledge is not typcially known or focused on by other diagnostic professionals who do not have an advocacy background.
What does the evaluation consist of?
The evaluation assesses the skills and sub-skills identified through scientific research to be the foundation for reading, writing and spelling. Prior to second grade, assessments would focus on the sub-skills for reading and writing, namely oral language skills, phonological processing, rapid naming tests and phonetic ability. Post second grade, these areas are assessed but higher level literacy skills and knowledge are also included in testing.
Our dyslexia evaluation also incorporates the child’s developmental history, family history of dyslexia, school performance and IQ testing results.
The evaluation would include testing in the following areas:
Oral language skills
Oral language is the ability to understand speech and to express oneself through speech. This includes recognizing the sounds which makeup words and then combining these sounds to form words, comprehending their meaning in spoken language at an age appropriate vocabulary level. Dyslexic students typically have average to significantly above average oral language skills and oral vocabulary. Screening oral language skills helps determine whether a student is struggling due to oral deficits rather than dyslexia. A student could also be struggling due to a combination.
Phonological processing
Phonological processing is at the sound level of language only (not print or meaning) and involves hearing, identifying and manipulating the sounds that make up language. Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound in a language and are the sounds that make up words. Dyslexia often involves some phonological processing impairment. Assessments of this skill have been determined to be one of the best predictors of reading, writing and spelling difficulties.
Decoding
Letters (ie graphemes) represent phonemes and identifying phoneme-grapheme (or sound-symbol) correspondence and blending to form words is the basis of reading. This is known as decoding. Dyslexic students usually have difficulty with this association. Assessments for decoding capability often use nonsense word reading to isolate decoding skills from familiar words recognized by “sight” from repeated exposure. Low scores for decoding are an important assessment to detect reading impairment.
Word reading assessments
Skill in reading words in isolation without any context clues is an important measure of whether a student is actually reading the word instead of relying heavily on context clues or memorized words. Accuracy and speed of reading a list of words in isolation are measured. Students with dyslexia often become able to read words accurately but not quickly. Slow reading speed is an important indicator of possible dyslexia.
Fluency
In addition to actual word reading tests, there is an important assessment used to predict success at reading. These are the Rapid Naming Assessments (RAN). Students with dyslexia often have slow information processing speed. RAN measures speed of naming sets of objects, colors, numbers and letters. Rapid naming of letters has particular significance. Another measure of reading fluency at higher age levels are oral reading of sentences and paragraphs with accuracy and speed.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary knowledge affects reading comprehension. Measuring vocabulary knowledge separately provides insight into reading comprehension challenges. Both reading and listening vocabulary tests should be administered because measuring only reading vocabulary may be inaccurate due to decoding difficulties.
Reading Comprehension
Those with dyslexia typically have high listening comprehension but low reading comprehension because of difficulties with decoding, accuracy and speed of reading. That said, many students with dyslexia have average or above average reading comprehension because of strong upper-level oral language skills which enables them to understand the main idea of a reading passage despite difficulty reading the words. That is especially true of short passages. This is often another reason why some students do not show difficulty with reading until middle school or high school when required reading is longer and more complex
Encoding, or spelling
Spelling involves the opposite process from reading words and is more complex. It involves remembering individual sound-letter correspondence, combinations of letters that make one sound (such as the diagraphs “sh,” th,” “ch” or vowel combinations such as “oa,” “ie,” “ea” and vowel-consonant combinations like “ow” and “aw”), and spelling patterns and then choosing the right patterns to form words. Spelling involves short and long term memory and working memory. Impairments in any of these affect spelling as does the physical writing of letters. Spelling is usually the most severe impairment in students with dyslexia.
Note: Background information is also included and analyzed as it informs further testing and is an important element of the diagnosis. This would include an analysis of information about language development, school assessments and academic performance, relevant medical information and other diagnoses to determine any factors which might impinge on reading and writing. Any assessments undertaken by the school, such as intelligent testing with the WISC-V or Woodcock Johnson would be reviewed and incorporated. Since Dyslexia is also genetically linked, a family history of dyslexia would also be documented.
Let’s get started!Writing
Sentences, paragraphs, essays. Reading and writing are complimentary skills and both are impaired in a student with dyslexia. Often the focus is on reading skills in assessing dyslexia but impairment often shows up in the ability of the student to write sentences and to form paragraphs and write essays. The assessment for students in the younger grades would focus on sentence writing. Higher grades would also include assessments of paragraphs and essays. A comprehensive evaluation should include assessments measuring these skills. Remediation for dyslexia should also include writing.
